Page 41 - Islam and Karma

s we have said before, according to the concept of
karma those who do good in their lives on earth will

be rewarded with good in the life to come, while
those who do evil will be rewarded with evil. Thus
the concept of karma tells us that our earthly life is both the result of
our previous life and the cause of our next life on Earth. At first sight,
it might appear that the expectation of having another life after death
would lead those who believe in karma to perform good actions—that
is, it might seem that people who believe in the idea of karma will try
to behave well in order to deserve good things in their next life, and
will try to avoid evil.

However, karma does not provide a powerful enough motivation
for someone who has not made a sincere decision to be virtuous, be-
cause people who accept the idea of karma believe that the wheel of
birth and death is endless and that they will inevitably be reborn after
every death. They think they will have an infinite number of chances.
So when they do evil, they may think: "Even if I have a worse life next
time, I can make up for it in the life after that”. Thus

we see that a philosophy based on such un-
sound foundations is incapable

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